Around Town
by Wicked Wonder
Summary: A collection of drabbles that takes place during The Junior Year.
1. Storm Warning

Rugrats

"Around Town"

These are drabbles that are set during "The Junior Year" but for some strange reason, didn't pop into my head until after it was finished. These won't make much sense unless you read that first.

Rating: PG-13 (maybe mild language, somewhat adult situations)

Feedback: To the usual place: No one, no one at all:)

Storm Warning

"It's going to rain," Dil says.

Tommy casts a look at his brother's face. "Do you know how soon?" he asks half jokingly.

"Around an hour from now." Dil gets up, looks out the window at the cloudless sky, and leaves the room, limping slightly.

Ever since the 'incident' (and Tommy always refers to it in his mind as an incident) Dil can predict weather. His leg will ache to the point where he almost can't walk. For the last five storms they've had, Dil's predicted every one. The first one, Tommy ignored, and paid for it when he ended up getting soaked on a date with Lil.

Sometimes, Tommy thinks about how unfair the whole thing is. Dil jokes about it now, and says he should go to meteorology school because of his built-in weather vane. But Tommy sees sometimes how Dil will hesitate to walk into a large crowd, something he never had a problem with before. He switched out of gym and added a study hall. He's a little quieter around people he doesn't know, and not as likely to jump into things as in the past. Tommy thinks that it's like someone turned off a light switch in Dil, and then turned it back on, but only at half-light.

Tommy wishes that he had done more than just punch one of the guys. Sometimes, he has daydreams of him executing brilliantly choreographed moves against all of them, hearing their cries for mercy and feeling victorious. Most of the time, though, he relives running into the gym and hearing the awful silence, only with hindsight, his mind chants, _too late, too late_.

He knows that logically, he couldn't have couldn't have done anything to stop them. His height and bulk, or lack of, might be an advantage on the track but didn't do much to stop fights. So he feels helpless, thinking back.

He pushes a chair back from his desk and gets up. Suddenly, he feels like going somewhere, away from this house.

But first, he grabs an umbrella.


	2. Good Looks and Laughs

Good Looks and Laughs

"So," Kim says.

"So," Tim mocks her. He laughs, and she joins in. They're perched on the bed ever so carefully, sitting side by side. They're not looking at each other, but ever so often, will glance at the other and then look quickly away.

Kim thinks back to stolen moments in Tim's car, her bedroom, his bedroom, and once, Chuck's bedroom. Then, everything seemed to happen like a tidal wave, carrying her and Tim with it. He would do things that would make her quiver and let her know exactly why her parents were telling her to wait, to slow down. If it would feel like that all the time, Kim might have to give up some of her other things and devote her time to...

She blushes at the thought. Tim notices, of course. He always notices.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he asks.

"Oh, just the time... in Chuck's room." she answers a little breathlessly. She was trying for playful, but it came out sounding all wrong. So she continues, "I was sure we were gonna get caught!" in her normal voice.

"That was fun," Tim agrees, sitting further back on the bed. Kim envies his long legs and moans at the fact that she has to sit on the very edge in order for her toes to hit the ground. *Stupid hotels and their extra high beds.*

"Why is this weird?" she asks, giving up on looking grown and crawling onto the bed. She sits back against the headboard, pulling her legs beneath her. 

Tim takes off his shoes and scoots next to her. "I don't know," he says honestly. "How can this be right in the wrong places but wrong in the right place?"

"Could it be the wrong time?" she asks hesitantly. 

Tim frowns. Kim kinda wishes she could take the words back, because he went through so much trouble, saving up money and everything for this to happen. It was something they'd discussed over and over, making sure that every detail was perfect. 

"For what it's worth, I think I'm with the right person," Kim adds, trying to be reasurring. She reaches up, starts taking her hair down from the elaborate style she has it in. She runs her fingers through it, and for some reason, the strands running over her fingers calm her down. She sighs and sinks down further onto the bed. She lets out a yawn, surprising herself.

"Hey, no falling asleep on me!" Tim reaches down and aims for her side, tickling her.

"I'm not! Dammit, no fair! You know how ticklish I am!" The more Kim protests and squirms, Tim digs in harder, until Kim's a mass of breathless laughs, shaking on the bed. "I hate you," she gasps as soon as she has enough air. 

"Whatever, shorty." Tim looks down on Kim smugly. Feeling more than a little devilish, she grabs him by the neck and hauls him down onto the mattress, face down.

"There will be no mercy," she begins, but gets interrupted by Tim's reaching out one of his arms and attempting to put her into a half-nelson. She slides out of it easily (being small has its advantages, she thinks) and straddles his back. Tim sits up, throwing her to the bed.

"Now, will there be mercy?" he asks, after pinning her. It's an old game, but Kim never gets tired of it.

"Okay, there will be mercy," she says, grumbling a little. After mercy is called, they're not allowed to be sneaky and start another fight.

"Oh, sorry I beat the snot out of you," Tim says, and falls onto her, knocking the wind out of her. He kisses her quickly and then moves to get up, but Kim stops him. 

"Wait. That was what was wrong," she says slowly.

"What?"

"We were too serious." she answers. 

"So now that we acted like crazy children, it's okay?" Tim asks skepically.

"Pretty much, yeah." Kim smiles sunnily and nips his nose. "See?"

Tim kisses her again, slowly this time. "Yeah, I see," he finally says.

And he does. Every time they try to be adult about it, something happens, like Kim not wanting to take off her socks, because her feet get cold. Or Tim's rolling off the bed. And at the end, they look at each other, still a little shaky, but chuckling to themselves.

"I feel like I should say something profound here, but all that's going through my head is Porky Pig saying, 'That's all folks!'" Kim confesses.

"Sounds good to me." Tim pulls up the covers after wrestling with them to straighten them out, and then says, "Love you, shorty."

Kim curls up in his arms, and whispers, "Love you too."


	3. Hair Care

Hair Care (This is for Starry Nights. Yeah, I love all of you, but her and I were discussing this. So this is for you!)

Waiting for the curling iron to heat up, Susan thinks about other things. As she parts her hair into sections and pins them up, she always thinks about the same things. How when she told her friends what she was doing to her hair, how they hadn't understood. On some level, Susan gets that. When they talk about some things about their hair, she doesn't always get why that's so important. Or the whole sunblock thing. (Theoretically, Susan knows she should probably use it too, but she doesn't much see the point. She doesn't burn, after all.)

As she starts methodically curling her hair, she thinks about the real issue. Once again, her and her parents had the same arguement. *"When are you going to come to your senses and stop dating a boy that's younger/ less experienced/ less potiential than you?"* Of course, they never say anything about race, but she can hear it in everything they say. *"We just think your worlds are too different."*

As usual, Susan had brushed off their concern, saying that she knew what she was doing. Inside, she burns with the unfairness of it. Out of all her siblings, she's the one that knows exactly what she wants to do with her life. She's the one who never rebelled when her parents wanted her to do something. The first time she had ever disagreed with them was when she decided not to be a pediatrician, but a pediatric nurse. 

Susan finishes her hair and glances in the mirror, satisfied. She turns off the curling iron and heads out the bathroom, ready to slip into her dress and knock Chuck out of his socks. And not think about anything tonight.


	4. Mai Tais and Bahama Mamas

Mai Tais and Bahama Mamas

"Another?"

"Yes, please."

Another frosty concoction, with alcohol that can't be tasted, and Lil sips at it before going back to join her friends. Tommy looks at her, but she pretends that she doesn't know why he's looking disapproving.

The thing is, Lil likes to drink. She likes how her limbs become pleasantly heavy, and the voice that shouts in her head is silenced. She feels normal, relaxed. Free. She also sees why Tommy doesn't like her to. He sees everything in black and white. Granted, he's willing to change his point of view, but his mind is so clear. Lil envies him his clearness. Everything's all muddled up in her head, in shades of gray.

People start singing around her. Lil feels the song bubbling up in her, and she joins in. Tommy

looks at her again, but she doesn't care anymore. She's happy.


	5. Running With Nowhere to Go

Running With Nowhere to Go

Chuck comes over, and Phil comes out. They start out jogging slowly, and start speeding up. They used to run with Tommy, until he got serious about it. It's a ritual that they don't even think about anymore. Running around the neighborhood, seeing the early signs of fall, they run in silence until Phil stops, panting. "Wait up," he gasps, bending over to catch his breath. "Guess we shouldn't have stopped running this summer, huh?"

"I didn't stop," Chuck says pointedly, but stops anyway.

Phil starts walking so he won't cramp. "Um," he starts awkwardly, "I thought about what you said yesterday."

"About what?" Chuck starts walking beside Phil, looking thoughtful.

"About my blowing everything out of proportion. With me and Angelica."

"And..." Chuck prompts.

"You're right. As usual. Couldn't you suck at advice giving just once?"

"I wouldn't be Chuck if I did," Chuck points out while laughing slightly. "So, what are you planning to do about it?"

"Honestly? I don't know. It's not like Angie's beating me to tell everyone."

"That's because she doesn't care what they think."

Phil nods at that and goes into a stretch. Football season will be here before long, and he really has neglected his routine.

"I guess I do though," Phil says out loud, just to get the words out there.

Chuck nods understandingly. "And she knows this, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Phil switches to a hamstring stretch, and then adds fiercely, "I love her."

"And she knows that?"

"Yes," Phil says definitely, and then smiles. "But hey, you always knew I was a big sap."

"Pretty much."

That said, Phil nods, and starts running again. Chuck falls into step with him, and they run, full out. Phil laughs suddenly, the sound carrying slightly.

"What?" Chuck puffs.

"I was thinking. This school year's gonna be all kinds of different, isn't it?"

"I'll bet," Chuck agrees.

If you're keeping track, "Cruel Summer" is next. Thanks!


End file.
